Sunday, December 9, 2012

Initiative brings message of hope and recovery

NORTH
Shore residents will be among the volunteers leading by example at an
upcoming event seeking to inspire those struggling with addiction to
take positive steps in their recovery journey.

For the last seven
years, the Vancouver-based Servants of Hope Society has provided a
holiday meal to those experiencing homelessness as well as those
struggling with addiction in the Downtown Eastside. The event, Feeding
the Homeless at Christmas in Pigeon Park, is unique as a number of
volunteers are in substance abuse recovery themselves, as well as having
previously lived in the area.

This year's event will be held
Monday, Dec. 17 and Servants of Hope Society founder Sean H. is
expecting it to be their biggest yet.

"I couldn't feed myself 10
years ago and with a little hope, 10 years later, I'm now feeding 1,000
with the help of my friends," he says. "If that isn't hope I don't know
what is."

In addition to the annual Christmas initiative, Servants of Hope runs a faith-based men's recovery house in East Vancouver.

The
annual holiday meal started small, seeing Sean and two of his friends,
all three in early recovery, show up in the Downtown Eastside to
distribute sandwiches, water, pop and clothing.

They were
surprised at the outcome. "They were known in that neighbourhood for
many years and they found recovery," he says of the friends who
accompanied him, "so we go back down there and next thing you know,
there were all these people who remembered and knew them and had never
seen them clean and sober."

Those they were serving ran to get
others, wanting them to see with their own eyes the trio's success in
moving forward on a positive, sober path. "That really, really affected
me and it also really affected my two friends," says Sean.

In the
years that have followed, Sean has continued to lead the charge in
presenting the annual meal, and participation and reach has continued to
grow. The 2011 edition saw more than 100 people volunteer (primarily
people in recovery, former area residents and some who had been served
by the dinner in the past).
"They're all together on this night in
that neighbourhood and they're just so grateful to be a part of it, and
so happy that they can give back and giving back is the foundation for
turning our lives around," says Sean.
"We totally understand what
it's like for these people in the Downtown Eastside, for those that we
do help, to be in a food line all year long. It's just another food
line? No, this is not another food line. This is like nothing they've
seen," he adds.

Together they served dinner to approximately 1,000
people in two hours. In addition, "Santa Claus" made an appearance and
handed out gifts.

Sean hopes the event continues to convince those they serve that change is possible.

"When
all you see is pain and suffering and misery, you need to see hope in
order for you maybe to consider that there is hope for you," he says.

Organization
for this year's event is on track and while Sean has been overwhelmed
by interested volunteers - from throughout the Lower Mainland, including
the North Shore - and donations of food, blankets and other gifts,
there are a few items he's still seeking. Warm clothing (mittens,
gloves, hats and socks), chocolate, gift wrap and ribbon are currently
on his wish list, as well as monetary donations to the society.

To make a donation or for more information on the Servants of Hope Society, visit servantsofhope.ca.

The Servants of hope society - outreach and events

Feeding the Homeless at Christmas in Pigeon Park

For the 7th year in a row, more than 100 People in Recovery from the greater Vancouver area get together and go into the Downtown Eastside to feed the homeless and do outreach

Bringing
the message of Hope And Recovery to the Downtown Eastside. The success
of the last 6 years of outreach involved over 100 people with minimal
financial and material support. We were still able to feed and meet the
needs of over 1000 people . The majority of the people involved with
this cause have a history of substance abuse and a high percentage of
those people came from the downtown eastside and are now free from
their addictions and are productive members of society today. It is
both a privilege and an honor for me and the people involved being able
to give back to those in need during such a dark and lonely time.http://www.servantsofhope.ca/outreach_events.html

CHRISTMAS APPEAL

* * *

Addicts don’t need a new drug

Opinion: They require support to a new way of life

I
read with interest Evan Wood’s opinion (Vancouver Sun, Nov., 3, 2012)
of a new drug, unavailable in Canada that could aid in the battle
against addiction. While I would love to be able to support the notion
that Vivitrol (naltrexone) will be a huge asset in the fight against
addictions, I am highly skeptical.

In my experience as executive
director of Edgewood, one of North America’s most respected addiction
treatment centres right here in British Columbia, we have yet to find
anything that is as effective as well-structured, long-term,
abstinence-based residential treatment. No pill, injection, short-term
detox or therapy-of-the-month has had any lasting benefit for the
majority of substance-dependent people and their families suffering from
this disease.

In his article Wood states, “Vivitrol reduced heavy
drinking in alcoholics by 25 per cent.” I find no comfort in the
thought that an alcoholic might only drink three out of four days, or
cut back from 40 ounces of Scotch daily to 30 ounces. The terrible
impact to an alcoholic’s health, their family and loved ones involved,
will not be significantly reduced by a 25-per-cent decrease in their
consumption. An alcoholic advised by his physician that he will die if
he takes another drink, will still die at 75 per cent of his drinking.

Absolutely
there is a critical role for physicians, psychiatrists and a wide range
of mood stabilizing medications in the treatment of addiction. But our
experience is many physicians do not fully understand the disease of
addiction. In fact, most get very little training in it. It seems
treatment often includes substituting one chemical for another. For
example, Methadone, an opiate initially developed as a pain killer, may
indeed reduce some harms. It is however, still an opiate. I believe the
goal should be to have people come off opiates completely. And, don’t be
fooled by the notion that opiate addicts never get clean. Many who have
come through Edgewood for treatment for their addiction have remained
clean for years.

Edgewood has three full-time, physicians who
specialize in addiction medicine. We could not do proper treatment
without them, but they are just part of a multi-disciplinary team that
includes addictions counsellors, nurses, dietitians, fitness
specialists, spiritual advisers and other staff.

It may surprise
you to learn that the vast majority of actively using, substance-
dependent people hold down full-time jobs. Yet discussion and proposed
solutions are often focused around addressing Vancouver’s Downtown
Eastside issues. While a case can be made for medications such as
naltrexone being prescribed for an at-risk population, it should not be
assumed that this is the solution for the vast majority of Canadians
suffering from the disease.

Post-treatment strategies or
“aftercare” plans may include anti-psychotic or anti-depressant
medications, but in most cases, they do not include anti-addictions
medicines. Remember Antabuse? The drug caused a mild to severely
unpleasant reaction when alcohol was consumed. It also was touted as the
answer to alcoholism. Perhaps good in theory, but in reality the
alcoholic, so driven by the disease, would drink through the sickness or
stop taking the medication. It is now rarely used.

Rather than
creating a reliance on another drug to achieve sobriety, we need to
encourage a new way of life, a new emotional reality and connect people
to a strong support system that will keep them from using.

The
questions we need to answer are whether society wants to invest in the
long-term costs of properly treating this disease and whether
substitution therapy or any drug therapy, as quick treatment is an
acceptable solution?

My answer is that many of the most
challenging people we have worked with, in the direst of circumstances,
have responded to abstinence-based treatment. They have regained their
lives, their jobs, their families and their sense of self- respect and
self-worth. They are wonderful human beings in recovery, a pleasure to
know and befriend. I am not convinced medications like Vivitrol will
achieve those same results.

Lorne Hildebrand is the executive director of Edgewood Addictions Centre in Nanaimo. For more information seewww.edgewood.ca

* * *

The cure for substance abuse isn’t a pill

Opinion: I know; I've been there and done that

By Jeff Vircoe, Special to The Vancouver Sun November 30, 2012

Jeff Vircoe is communications coordinator at Edgewood.

I
didn’t wake up. I came to. Usually abruptly. Panicked. Terrified. The
first five minutes were always the worst. Where was I? Who is that
person beside me? Is anything broken? Where’s my wallet? Where am I
supposed to be? I need water. I smell like a brewery. What did I do with
my car?

The essence of my addiction was simple. Predictable.
Vicious. Dangerous. To me and others. It stayed that way from age 13 to
age 28. Twenty-four years after my last drink, toke, snort or pill, I
still get quiet when I think about it. I am all too aware I can still
have all that misery back in the snap of a finger. I’m not cured. I’ve
seen too many lose their sobriety date after weeks, months or even
multiple years. I’ve been to many, many funerals. But drugs like
Vivitrol have me pondering. A pill that would allow me to consume
alcohol or other drugs with little to no effect? Wow. Am I ready or
willing to wander back into the life I resigned from in 1988?

My answer is no. Why?

I
drank for effect. I have no desire to consume alcohol or drugs just for
the hell of it. Pay five bucks a drink and not get a buzz? Come on. A
painfully shy guy, I drank and drugged because I had found something
that for a few years made me feel inside like they looked outside.
Smarter. Sexier. Funnier. I loved it. And if I could still be out there
dancing with it I would be. But I couldn’t. The blessing, or curse, of
being an addict is the thing you love begins killing you. When I reached
that point of near death, in my case by my own hand, I had to make a
decision to either get it over with, or to ask for help. I didn’t know
which one sounded worse. Back then, death had a nice ring to it.
Sobering up in a room full of misfits and people who believe in God did
not. At least not to me. But not anymore.

Turns out those misfits
were my peers. Damn, I too was a misfit. That’s why I drank, remember?
So I could fit in. The “God thing” was my stumbling block, but it turned
out that I didn’t have to worry. The wording of the step literally says
‘God as we understood Him.’ I didn’t understand him. So I borrowed
Pete’s concept. Or Marti’s, or Kelleigh’s. Sure maybe it’s all a big
mirage. But I keep going to the meetings, praying, reading about other’s
opinions on the “God thing” just the same. And low and behold I’m still
sober and mostly happy. And with no urge to use or drink.

So
Vivitrol would allow me to re-enter the bar scene and sip the foam off a
beer or two again? Hmmm. Why would I want to do that? Without the
effect, I already know I won’t fit in. I don’t even like being around
drunks or stoners when they’re using. Most of what I hear from them is
what I heard from me. Nonsensical, arrogant, pointless arguments or
attempts to manipulate others to join me.

I believe if I miss the
bar scene, or the lazyboy (the cockpit of my spaceship to la-la land),
then there is something wrong with my approach to my life, it’s not even
about drinking or drugging. Drinking and drugging were my solutions,
not my problem. My problem was my attitude about my life. I just needed
another solution.

My solution these days does not come in a pill
form. It comes in acceptance. In action. What I’ve been doing for 24
years. At least three meetings a week with guys and gals who know what
it’s like to wake up, or come to like I used to. Prayers to something I
do not understand. Helping others to get on track. Doing the steps and
trying to be rigorously honest about where I am at, no matter how crazy
it may sound.

A drink or toke without the buzz would be like
hugging a cardboard cut-out of my daughter. Give me the real thing or
give me nothing. I don’t do fake. And when it comes to drugs and
alcohol, I just can’t do the real thing. That train has left the
station.

A friend of mine once told me something that has saved me
many times. He said “We realize the boat we are asking you to row is
invisible. Row anyway.”

The boat is not a pill.

Jeff
Vircoe, a former weekly newspaper and magazine editor and recipient of
the Stuart Keate Memorial Award for writing, is communications
coordinator at Edgewood. He lives in Parksville.

Here is the Letter to the Editor sent to the Vancouver Sun, that was not published, followed by the news item that prompted the letter:

I work with addicts in recovery and I can tell you for a fact that when
OxyContin was widely available last year, the abuse was not 'notable' or
'troubling'; it was an epidemic.You must have noticed that every
pharmacy and every doctor's office and clinic had conspicuous signage
declaring "NO OXY ON THE PREMISES."

Now Leona Aglukkaq, our federal Health Minister, flying fast in the
face of advice from doctors, researchers, police chiefs and Provincial
health ministers, has approved new generic versions of this nightmare.
Her ironic defense is that she doesn't want politics to interfere with
science. Huh?

Aglukkaq is an aboriginal from the Far North. No demographic is more
tragically effected by this blind decision. What is she thinking?

David BernerDrug Prevention Network of Canada

Aglukkaq approves 'Hillbilly heroin' copies

Manufacturers have been asked to submit risk management plans on safe use of the generics

By Sharon Kirkey, Postmedia NewsNovember 28, 2012

Health
Canada has swiftly approved six generic copies of the widely abused
painkiller OxyContin, despite urgings from some of the country's leading
pain doctors and researchers to delay approval in the name of "patient
and public safety."

The first generic versions of the drug dubbed
"Hillbilly heroin" were authorized by Health Canada on Monday - one day
after the patent held by Purdue Pharma for its long-acting formulation
of oxycodone, the active ingredient in OxyContin, expired.

Purdue
began phasing out OxyContin earlier this year, replacing it with OxyNEO.
Oxy-NEO tablets have been hardened to make them more difficult to
abuse. When crushed, the pills form a thick, gummy-like gel in water,
making them harder to snort or inject.

But the generics will use
the same older, "easy to tamper with" formulation in the now
discontinued OxyContin, doctors who treat patients with chronic pain or
addiction wrote in a letter to federal health minister Leona Aglukkaq
Nov. 19.

"If there were some foolproof way to stratify patients
into low risk vs. high risk, perhaps we could provide the generic
versions to low-risk patients and reserve the tamper-resistant
formulations for the higher risk patients," read the letter, endorsed by
34 doctors.

But even with screening and monitoring, "it is always
a challenge in practice to be confident that a given patient is using
pain medication appropriately."

There is also a risk that public
and private insurers would consider the drugs interchangeable, they
added, and that pharmacists would automatically substitute a
prescription for OxyNEO that was specifically prescribed for a high-risk
patient, with one of the cheaper generics.

Provincial health
ministers, as well as the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, had
appealed to Aglukkaq to delay approval of generic Oxy-Contin. But
Aglukkaq said she is compelled by law not to withhold approval for a
drug that is otherwise considered safe and effective for its intended
use.
"The minister has made it clear that she doesn't feel it's
the place for politicians to interfere with the scientific review
process," her spokesman, Steve Outhouse, said Tuesday. "It's fine for
doctors to write a letter saying, 'Don't approve this drug,' " Outhouse
said. "The reality is that this drug never hits the streets unless it is
prescribed. So if there are 34 doctors who are concerned about it, none
of them need to prescribe a generic version of OxyContin to anyone."

Health
Canada said manufacturers have been asked to submit "risk management
plans" on the safe use of the generics. Licensed dealers have also been
told to report spikes in sales, sudden changes in distribution patterns
or other potential signs of diversion.

Montreal physician Dr. Mark
Ware said the government has approved a drug formulation with known
health hazards. He said data from the United States suggested that
removal of OxyContin from the market has led to reduced rates of
oxycodone abuse in that country.

Opening the market to generics
"means that it's now fair game once again for abuse," said Ware,
director of clinical research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit
at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.

Generic drug
makers "are not interested, and have never been interested in doing
education of physicians," he said. "I can't see them stepping up and
driving the opioid use guidelines out to physicians and making sure that
they're implemented."

Endorsement

"All treatment centres in B.C. should get involved and support the Drug Prevention Network. As one collective voice we need to send the message that treatment works and it saves lives. There are recovery houses, treatment centers, private, government funded, long term, short term, detox, therapeutic communities etc. Let's help support prevention and help educate the public."